


New Times

by DaLaRi



Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Ent-Disco tie-in, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 16:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12193446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaLaRi/pseuds/DaLaRi
Summary: Ariella Archer says goodbye to her grandfather before she ships out.





	New Times

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lion_owl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lion_owl/gifts).



The house was heavy with unseasonable warmth. Ariela weighed her feet on the hardwood floor, letting the creaks and settling she felt under her feet ground her as she braced herself. Sure, she hadn’t seen her Grandda Shran since Granddad had died, but, well, she was starting her deployment tomorrow. She couldn’t really delay any longer. It was dangerous, sometimes, and space was really far away from home. It was dangerous, and she didn’t want to think about it. Her granddads had survived, but they were lucky.

\---

Grandda was dozing when she walked in. His mouth had drooped to half-open as he slept, and his high, buzzing Andorian snoring made her smile as she stood in the doorway. He had a PADD draped across his lap, and his face and antennae tilted toward the windows. For all he’d protested to Granddad’s desire to move to New York, he’d gotten used to the sun, and no doubt he’d be upset he’d missed a truly brisk morning for a walkabout. Stepping out from the doorway, she leaned her weight into a joint in the floorboards, which let out a high, raspy creak. Shran twitched, and with a sputtering inhale, he flinched his way into complete awakeness. He met her eyes from across the room and smiled, simpultaneously tucking a raggedd gray scrap of fabric under the padd on his lap. _Oh._ Granddad’s gloves had the unmistakeable wispy dark grey and as he saw her eyes catch the movement, his antennae flicked back as a shadow crossed his face. He reached out towards her, palms up, and she smiled, rushing over to grasp his ever-warm, dry, blue hands.

“Granddad!”

He laughed. “Your cushion is under the coffee table, little bug, if you want to sit by me.” He seemed stiff in the warm sunlight, beetled inward like even the weak winter sunlight had dried him out, and as he stretched out his arms as she walked to pull her old sitting-cushion out from under the coffee table, his antennae pricked towards her, suddenly nervous.

“So you’re flying out tomorrow.”

Her heart dropped as she set the cushion next to him. She didn’t feel like sitting. “Yea. Mom told you?”

“No, your brother.”

Ari narrowed her eyes, and Grandda huffed. “Please. You think _our_ family could keep a secret if ur lives depended on it?”

She shook her head free of painful ways to inconvenience her brother, and dropped down to the cushion next to him.

Her voice felt choked. “I know I didn’t-“

“Didn’t call, didn’t subspace me when you nearly got that medal, didn’t tell me your posting, didn’t message once since-“ The silence said the rest.

She winced. “Yeah.”

His laugh was bright, and surprised her. “What?” she asked, expecting to be offended.

“Oh, nothing. Jon would have laughed, said you took after me.”

She grinned lopsidedly. It hurt less, now. “Yeah, he would. Probably have said something about two feet on the ground or something.”

“Said something about ‘Andorian sense’.”

Ari threw her head back and laughed. “Andorian sense, jeez, that one I haven’t heard in y e a r s”

Her granddad’s ears went purple, faintly, at the tips. “I still stand by it.”

“Grandda, the day you _stop_ standing by it is the day mom stops holorecording ceremonies.”

Shran grinned. “Uzaveh _forbid_ we stop getting embarrassing footage of you or your siblings.”

Ari felt her smile fall. “Sorry I didn’t call about graduation.”

Shran reached his hand down to squeeze hers. “Archers are stubborn. No Andorian sense.”

“Didn’t you just say we were alike?”

“No, I said that _Jon_ would have said we were.”

The conversation lulled. She shivered, it had gotten cold, and even though Grandda’s eyes were brighter with cold, he winced sympathetically at her shiver.

“What’s the name of the ship you’re stationed on?”

“The USS _Shenzhou_. Captain Philippa Georgiou, first officer Michael Burnham.”

Shran’s eyes tightened. “Sarek’s girl.”

“Granddad, Spock was in my class last year, and just because Sarek beat Granddad out of the Nobel Prize doesn’t mean you can hold a grudge forever.”

The tension in his shoulders held for a brief second, then he slumped. “I know. Old habits.”

Ari grinned. “Soval did a lecture in the Interspecies Relations department last semester.”

Shran’s grin was biting. “How many questions before he figured out it was you?”

“Six. I went as a reporter for the school newspaper.”

He laughed. “Good. That’s very good.”

Her comm beeped, and she froze.

Shran sighed. “Go on, take it.”

She grinned apologetically, flipping it open. The mechanical voice of the Metro warp transport reminder system rambled a timing warning at her, and she checked her watch, flying to her feet as she tried to remember if she’d brought anything other than herself.

Shran chuckled, looking suddenly very old. “That late?”

“I’m so sorry Granddad, I forgot I was going to use the Metro.”

He pushed himself up, and she realized abruptly she was taller than him now. He was warm from the blankets and the chair, and she felt tears at the corners of her eyes.

“We’ll be having none of that now. Don’t forget to call.”

She kissed his cheek as she hurried towards the doorway. “I won’t,” she said, slipping her shoes on and she was out the door.

\---

In his room, Shran picks up Jonathan’s gloves from the floor, along with the Padd that had slid to the floor. “She’s going to be fine, Pinkskin.” He sat back down, and the lights of the city beckoned him to drift off to sleep. Jonathan's eyes were in the glint of every night-lit building reflected on the water, and he gripped the woolen grey gloves tighter still. “She’s going to be absolutely fine.”


End file.
